THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
would be a heavier blow to Nazi prestige than not to
have tried at all. This kind of criticism is often
simply the expression of the speaker's keenness to
'have a crack* at the enemy, the speaker being
usually a member of the armed forces, whose pleas-
ing duty it would be to have the 'crack9. It is the
not unnatural reaction to the suspense of waiting for
the attack, much heralded and boastfully presaged
by German propagandists, to begin. No doubt the
troops who stood ready to meet Napoleon's invasion
in 1803-05 said very much the same. Yet there is
ground for thinking that it would be a blow to our
own prestige if an enemy succeeded in putting a foot
on our territory, even if the invaders were thrown
back again, as assuredly they would be. It has long
been our boast that our shores are inviolate. A
desperate attempt, planned with sufficient thorough-
ness and on a colossal scale, might cause great loss
of life and property here before it was crushed. The
danger would in this respect be greater still if Eire
were the invaders' objective, for the defence of that
country is totally inadequate.
Future^Possibilities
There may still be an opportunity for our home-
based forces to meet the enemy on British soil and to
deal with him as they desire. The story of the threat
of invasion by sea is not ended by any means. We
have been warned that it is something more than a
possibility. eWe must recognise9, said Lord Beaver-
brook in a broadcast address on December 17, *that
the enemy is making preparations for the invasion
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